BILL BRYSON

William McGuire (Bill) Bryson is Irish by descent, although he was born in Des Moines, Iowa, the son
of Agnes Mary and sports journalist Bill Bryson, Sr. As Bill (Junior) remarked in his book “The Lost
Continent”: "I come from Des Moines, Iowa. Somebody had to." Both his parents were of Irish
descent. “My father was bonkers about genealogy and all of my forbearers were from Ireland. My
father’s side were Ulster Protestants and my mother’s side were Ulster Catholics. He knew every
detail and he and my mother would make frequent trips to Ireland.”

Bryson’s entire family worked in newspapers and he followed in the family business in the late
1970’s when he took up a post at the Bournemouth Evening Echo before moving on to the London
Times and, later, the Independent.

“We worked in newspapers. It was what we did. Both my parents and my brother wrote for the local
paper. It was what we talked about at the dinner table at our house. It never occurred to me to do
anything else. And also English was the only thing I was any good at, at school. I never really
expected to be a writer. For the first half of my life I worked as a sub-editor. Writing only came into
it because when our family was young we needed to supplement our income. For things like a
washing machine.”

His interests are eclectic and he has pitched ideas to publishers as diverse as Shakespeare and
Australia.

“I’ve been very lucky with my publishers over the years because they have indulged me,” he says.
“The British have been particularly good and rather braver. I had to fight hard for the Americans to
let me do a book on Australia because they thought nobody in America wants to read a book on
Australia. Luckily for me, it turned out they do. You have to follow your gut instinct with writing. The
things that end up being really successful nobody can predict. Who could have predicted that Harry
Potter would be such a giant success? If you think you know the next big thing, you’re bound to be
wrong.”

Bryson is one of Britain’s best-selling authors of non-fiction He has written books on etymology
and science as well as some of world’s favourite travel writing, including “The Lost Continent”,
“African Diaries” and “Neither Here Nor There”. His 1998 account of an eventful attempt to walk the
Appalachian Trail resulted in “A Walk in the Woods” which is now being made into a film starring
Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.

When asked in an interview published in Everguide.com why he did not write fiction, Bryson replied
that he doesn’t have stories to tell. Given that his style of writing is so descriptive and imaginative,
this seems hard to believe.

“In principle I’d love to write fiction, but the problem is I don’t have any stories to tell. I don’t have
any plots. The great thing about non-fiction is that the plot is imposed on you by the subject of the
book, and I’m very comfortable doing that. If I were confronted with having to do a novel, I wouldn’t
quite know how to do it.”

His book “Down Under” had many stories, and very good ones as well. So maybe we will see a fiction
work from Bryson in future. “Down Under” is the British title of a 2000 travelogue book about
Australia which he wrote after extended travels down under. In the United States and Canada it was
published titled “In a Sunburned Country”, a title taken from the famous Australian poem, "My

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Country". It was also published as part of “Walk About”, which included “Down Under” and “A Walk
in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail”, in one volume.

Bill Bryson has a special knack of finding humour and comedy in the most mundane and oridinary
experiences, and because of this his books are guaranteed to lift your spirit and getting you to laugh
aloud while reading. The Age says it well when they describe Bryson’s writing style in a review of
“Down Under”.

"'He arrives at his destination, finds a hotel, checks in, meanders around the neighbourhood, visits
any museums or public monuments he happens to encounter, has a couple of drinks, eavesdrops on
a conversation or two, then goes to bed. A year later, people on three continents are hospitalised as
a result of ruptures caused by laughing so hard at his account of the experience'" - The Age,
Melbourne

“Down Under” is a collection of tales and a commentary of Bryson’s travels around Australia by
railway and car. He relates random conversations with a wide spectrum of people he encounters
along the way and discusses the history, geography, unusual plants and animals of the country, and
his wry impressions of the life, culture and amenities (or lack thereof) in each locality.

He writes in a style similar to his book “A Walk in the Woods”, or William Least Heat-Moon's
chronicle about his 13,000 mile soul searching exploration of rural America called “Blue Highways”.
Bryson's research enabled him to include many stories about Australia's 19th-century explorers and
settlers who suffered extreme deprivations, as well as details about its natural resources, culture,
and economy. His writings are intertwined with recurring humorous themes, notably, in the chapter
Crossing Australia he makes constant reference to drinking of urine to survive, as was done by many
19th century explorers. He jokingly adds, about a certain explorer "...I daresay he drank some of his
own urine" and "They drank their own and their horse's urine"

The book consists of three parts.

1. Into the Outback

The book starts off with the author wondering who the current Prime Minister of Australia is, as he
feels that it is a difficult country to keep track of.

The first part of the book mainly describes the journey taken by Bryson aboard the Indian Pacific
railway from Sydney to Perth. He is accompanied on this journey by a young English photographer
named Trevor Ray Hart. The author describes his experiences on the train, the places the train
passes through on its way to Perth such as the Blue Mountains and White Cliffs. The author also
supplies plenty of humour in the form of historical accounts of early explorers and settlers of
Australia.

2. Civilized Australia (The Boomerang Coast)

This section of the book starts off with historical accounts from the time when Australia was
discovered and goes on to illustrate how the Australians built a dynamic and prosperous society
from a modest and unpropitious beginning. The rest of this section is devoted to the author's
account of what he considers to be Civilized Australia – the lower right-hand corner of the country,
extending from Brisbane in the north to Adelaide in the south and west. Bryson describes his
journey, the people and their cities as he drives through Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and
Adelaide. The section ends with Bryson's account of a brief visit to Myall Creek and Surfers Paradise.

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3. Around the edges
This section of the book begins with Allan Sherwin, Bryson's friend and temporary travelling
companion on this part of the journey, offering all his urine in case they got lost while crossing the
arid wastes of Australia's interior. This part of the journey covers the Great Barrier Reef, Alice
Springs and the mighty monolithic rock Uluru. .

Bryson sums Australians up as follows:

"The people are immensely likable- cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted, and unfailingly obliging. Their
cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water. They have a society that is prosperous,
well ordered, and instinctively egalitarian. The food is excellent. The beer is cold. The sun nearly
always shines. There is coffee on every corner. Life doesn't get much better than this."

Written by:
Lex Faure
lex@carpedp.com
17th October 2015

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